The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga fought hard to pluck a win away from Memphis as if it were the perfect plantain — a Puerto Rico delight.

But the Mocs couldn’t get the 13th-ranked Tigers into the fryer and complete the upset Thursday in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tipoff at San Juan.

UTC matched Memphis point for point in the second half but could not make up a 12-point halftime deficit in an 83-71 loss.

“We made a couple of bonehead plays, and if we don’t make those, I’m telling you, they were ripe today,” coach John Shulman said via cell phone. “Our kids made a stand today. Our kids defended. Our kids rebounded.

“Our kids played their guts out today.”

UTC senior guard Stephen McDowell led all players with 27 points. He hit 10 of 20 shots, including seven of 13 3-pointers. Senior forward Nicchaeus Doaks scored 15 points and tied his career high with 16 rebounds.

Guard Doneal Mack led the Tigers (3-0) with 19 points. Forward Robert Dozier added 18 points, half of them coming in the final eight minutes.

“My teammates and coaches have been stressing that I need to shoot it more, so I found ways to get open,” McDowell said over the phone. “We came out to do the thing we want to do better, and we did them better.”

The Mocs (0-3) held several leads in the first half, the largest being a 21-16 advantage after a McDowell bucket with 8:15 to go before halftime. Memphis responded by scoring on eight straight possessions to take a 34-29 lead and force Shulman to call a timeout. UTC trailed 47-35 at the half.

“It was a great game all around and both teams competed our tails off,” Doaks said on the postgame radio show. “That’s the hardest we’ve played all year.”

Memphis earned its largest lead of the night, 19 points, on a bucket by Dozier with 16:31 to play. The Tigers’ lead remained in the teens through the second half.

UTC crept within 11 points on a 3-pointer by McDowell with 1:22 to play, and then the Mocs fouled Antonio Anderson. Anderson hit one free throw and Shulman never ordered another foul.

“We needed to end up with a positive, and we didn’t need to make it a foul-fest,” Shulman said. “Our kids made a stand today, but can they do it again?”

UTC will face the Seton Hall-Southern Cal loser today at 5 p.m. EST.

“I want to see if we can play Puerto Rico-Mayaguez,” Shulman joked, referring to the Mocs’ 2005 Caribbean trip. “But I don’t see them in this tournament.”

Comments